THE Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) will get P1 billion in funding this year for the construction of a super-maximum prison facility to house prisoners convicted of heinous crimes.
BuCor Director General Gregorio Catapang Jr. said the amount is on top of the bureau’s P7.4 billion allocated budget this year, which is higher by 23 percent to its P6.1 billion appropriation last year.
“An additional P1 billion budget will be transferred to BuCor from the Department of Public Works and Highways for the construction of supermax or facilities for heinous crimes,” Catapang said.
In October last year, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said they are considering public-private partnership as the best way to fund the establishment of a super maximum prison facility to house high-level offenders, such as big-time drug lords.
Remulla has said using part of the Sablayan Prison and Penal Colony as a site for the supermax facility is ideal given its size and location.
Established on September 27, 1954 by virtue of Proclamation No.72, the Sablayan Prison and Penal Colony has a total land area of 16, 190 hectares.
In the United States, supermax prison is a separate facility that is designed to house both inmates described as the most hardened criminals and those who cannot be controlled through any other means.
Meanwhile, data from the BuCor showed there are 27,538 heinous crime convicts (murder, drug trafficking, human trafficking, rape) out of the more than 52,000 convicts detained at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City and six other prison and penal colonies nationwide, namely the Davao Prison and Penal Farm, Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm in Palawan, San Ramon Prison and Penal Farm in Zamboanga, Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm in Occidental Mindoro, Leyte Regional Prison and the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong City.
These prison facilities are all experiencing congestion problems.
Out of these prisoners, 19,777 are sentenced to reclusion perpetua or life imprisonment and 147, the death penalty that have been converted to life term following the repeal of the death penalty law.
Meanwhile, Catapang also bared the programs he wants implemented this year, including the finalization of the Table of Organization and Equipment, deployment of K9 dogs to all operating prison and penal farms outside of Metro Manila, installation and enhancement of CCTV systems in all operating prison and penal farms, which can be monitored at the national headquarters and command and control center at the Director’s Quarter; and the acquisition of earthmoving equipment for the agency’s development projects such as pay loader, backhoe and demo trucks.
Catapang said he also wants to expedite the land titling of all BuCor properties, which it can use as legal instruments in dealing with investors and other stakeholders.
